I found a cross-section of official and unofficial stories, dealing mostly with players moving on from the CWUAA.

Three Monkeys are on their way to play for the Flames, the Guildford Flames that is. The former Apes are Rhett Rachinski, Brennan Yadlowski, and Jesse Craige. Craige had already gone pro a year ago and the others had no further eligibility left. Guildford is moving up from the EPHL where they enjoyed immense success, to the EIHL. Remember that the Bisons face three EIHL teams in the pre-season.

The T-irds are losing their leading scorer from a year ago. Anthony Bardaro has signed with HC Asiago of the Alps Hockey League. He still had a year of eligibility left. The Alps league is Austria-based and is their 2nd tier league (behind the EBEL). The league also has the better teams from Slovenia and Italy.

Bedrock U has no story posted but there are links for a few departures, all of whom played just one season for the Dinos. Two back-up players are moving down the hockey ladder. Darcy DeRoose is going to the Red Deer College Kings and Mac Colasimone is off to the S.F.U. Clown. Meanwhile, Parker Bowles is going pro with the Tillburg Trappers, a Dutch team playing in the Oberliga, Germany's 3rd tier league. Bowles had 12 points in 12 games. Colasimone dressed in 7 games and had 2 goals and 1 assist. DeRoose had 1 goal and 2 assists in his 11 games.

Meanwhile, across town, the M.R.U. Bluegars will bid farewell to defenceman Emerson Hrynyk. He is off to the Dundee Stars of the EIHL. This former Dauphin King had a year of eligibility left. No word on whether Dundee has restaurants that serve perogies with haggis.

Amidst the stories of departures, I also see that the Regina Banjo Cats landed a goaltender. Michael Herringer has the unenviable task of facing the onslaught of shots in the Regina goal. He'll see more rubber than ... ah forget it. He's had some OK numbers, so Regina must be happy getting a recruit from the Dub. They need many more of those.

Once again, the T-irds have more off-season news. Defenceman Kyle Becker helped Canada win gold at the Maccabiah Games, the "Jewish Olympics". There was a 5-team round-robin, where Canada went 4-0-0 to place 1st. In the final Canada beat USA 7-2 for gold. Russia beat Israel for bronze, and Germany placed 5th. There were almost 10,000 fans in the sold-out arena for the final game.

The Bisons' British Tour is now only 3 weeks away. The tickets are fairly pricey. The Belfast Giants charge £25-£35 (C$41-C$58) for adults for two games, and for children its £14-£22 (C$23-C$36). Edinburgh Capitals are much cheaper, £5 for children and £10 for adults. Braehead's links for tickets are not up and running yet. But for their other exhibition games the range is £9-£27. So if I were on tour the tickets would cost me more than a season pass over here! In fact, AHL Moose tickets are cheaper.

Lots of CW (and CIS) coaches have made it big and two, former Calgary Dinos' head coach Willie Desjardins and former Saskatchewan Huskies' head coach Dave King, were named to Hockey Canada's coaching staff for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Desjardins will be the head coach. Mike Babcock (Lethbridge) was at the helm in 2010 and 2014, and Dave King himself led the way in 1984, 1988, and 1992. Clare Drake (Alberta) was one three "head coaches" in 1980, along with Tom Watt and Lorne Davis. George Kingston (Calgary) and Wayne Fleming (Manitoba) have served as assistants.

Shaq Merasty has been signed by the Wichita Thunderof the ECHL. He was one of the leading scorers for the Bisons and although he has been out of junior for 5 seasons already, he still had one year left. (He played in the NCAA3, got 2nd team all-American honours, red-shirted, and then spent 3 years with the Bisons.) In 28 NCAA3 games he was 22-16-38. His peak season in the CW was 14-16-30 in 2015-16.

Also, upcoming Bison opponent Edinburgh Capitals signed yet another Acadia alum, Dylan Anderson. That gives the Caps two former Cajuns and the Bisons one for that game coming up on August 29th.

No post would be complete without a UBC story. This one tells us that the T-irds previously-announced exhibition games against the Trinity Western Spartans and the St.F.U. Clown are part of a tournament sponsored by the Vancouver Giants called the "Captains Cup". Seems silly, since the games are so spread out, but if it generates some interest so be it. The BCIHL schedule is still stuck at 2016-17.

There has been nothing official from the Hørny Ønes in a long time. And there still has not been. Twitter tells us that Vancouver Giants' defenceman Jeff Rayman is going to Lethbridge. With 7 goals in 205 WHL games he is not being brought in to light up the scoreboard. They should find a 6'3" big guy in front of the net to be useful.

The Giants have one of those free events for fans today. They are the EIHL's best franchise when it comes to putting fans in seats. So the Bisons should be in an AHL-type environment for the games.

The team is also quite successful on the ice. Founded in 2000-01, they have won the championship (finishing 1st overall) four times, and the playoffs twice (this is considered secondary in British hockey). In the last 8 years they have been 1st twice and 2nd three times, including last year.

The Giants have been successful because they identify with neither Irish nor British, nor Catholic nor Protestant. Sports teams over there usually do, which adds spice (and sometimes violence) to rivalries.

Two former Bison stars played for the Giants in the past but are now retired: Kevin Saurette and Paul Deniset.

Kevin Saurette was with the Bisons for 5 years starting in 2001-02 and finished his pro career in Belfast. He arrived there during the 2012-13 season and stayed for 2.5 years, finishing in 2014-15. His peak Bison season was 21-32-53 in 40 games (Elite Prospects included non-conference games in some stats) and his peak Giants' numbers were 31-34-65 in 52 games.

Paul Deniset was a Bison for 4 years starting in 2002-03 during which he was usually lined up with Saurette. He had two stints in Belfast, 2008-09 and 2011-12. Hard to choose his best Bison season. Is 34-22-56 in 42 games better than 26-25-51 in 32 games? He was a dynamic goal-scorer for the Bisons no matter how you look at it. His numbers were also impressive in Belfast, peaking at 27-39-66 in 39 games.

A smattering of Giants pictures shows they have a choice of colourful jerseys. And their fans seem to appreciate a tussle once in a while.

The Bisons still don't have a new roster page. But we do have their new banner logo. And The Manitoban has posted a tour story with comments from Brett Stovin. Saturday the Belfast Giants displayed their four different jerseys for this season. I am not a fan of the heavy advertised Euro-look.

The Bisons also reposted the CW story on CanadaWest.tv. A hockey pass is $35.99 ($29.99 early bird) and other prices are stated in the story. The debut broadcast is an exhibition football game on Wednesday.

All of them have split time between Major Junior and Junior A. Kennedy had been in the QMJHL until mid-way through last season. Lipon once played in the WHL but has been back in Junior A for 2½ years. Pankewicz had four seasons in the Dub before splitting last season between that and Junior A.

Zak Zborosky is a huge addition for a team like Regina. They have been basement dwellers for so long now. He is the type of player that I would have expected to end up at UofS or UofA. Guess he is a hometown boy though.

The puck drops tomorrow for the Bisons-Belfast series but nothing new on the Bison tour, nor of the roster. Hopefully I can find a LeagueStat kind of source for rosters etc. If you have £10 you can watch on-line, or £12 for both! Post-game highlights will likely be on their YouTube page.

The CW is also releasing stories on each team's CW recruits. The Bisons already announced theirs. To remind you, here they are again:

The Bluegars' conference banner was out, briefly, and then replaced with one featuring a new logo. How about that. Their website still has no feature stories. However, one commitment story is part of a batch of releases on the CW site. They have Riley Lindgren, a forward from Swift Current (WHL). He had 74 points in 72 games. I suppose the rest of their recruits will be from Junior A. Their 2017-18 schedule has been posted, but their only listed exhibition game is the one announced by and against Saskatchewan.

The only links I could find were from Belfast's Twitter feed. They have loads of good photos but no summary nor boxscore. They did not mention who scored the Bison goals. So I have posted what is there.

The Bison tour has finished its Irish leg and now it is time for the Scottish leg. I believe the last time the Bisons played in Scotland was 1931 when they were touring before and after the world championship tournament. They stopped in England and beat their national team four times (7-0, 7-1, 2-1, and 3-2) and Oxford University once (4-0) before defeating the Scottish national team (11-1).

The Edinburgh Capitals are the Bisons' first Scottish opponent of the tour. The Capitals have four former CIS/USports players on their roster. Taylor Stefishen played for the Calgary Dinos from 2011-12 through 2013-14 and has since played in the AHL, ECHL, and various Euro leagues. Mike Cazzola was with Acadia from 2012-13 through 2015-16, then split last season between the AHL and ECHL. Dylan Anderson played for Queen's last year, after four years with Acadia. Michael D'Orazio is entering his second season with Edinburgh after having played five seasons for St. Mary's.

Last year the Capitals were last in the EIHL (then a 10 team league). Their record was 16-33-3. Their head coach is former NHLer Dmitri Kristich.

The team even has cheerleaders, one of whom is very tall, as seen in the photo. They also incorporate the Scottish flag into their jerseys. Nice touch.

The Braehead Clan were 5th in the EIHL last year, at 24-22-6. They have no CIS grads. Of note, Clan goaltender Ryan Nie played for the Johnstown Chiefs (of Slapshot fame) in 2007-08. Was he mentored by Denis Lemieux? Also, forward Tyler Scofield played for the OCN Blizzard (of the MJHL) in 2004-05.

Just today, the Clan inked former NHLer Ryan Potulny.

The two Bison opponents this week are joined by two more teams from Scotland, the Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers. (Fife is a historic team that returned to top tier hockey in the UK the same season as the Jets returned to Winnipeg.) The four Scottish teams also have a competition for the Scottish Cup. The event is being held in Edinburgh September 9th and 10th. The four teams will rotate hosting this each season.

Details are sketchy because while the UK teams love their pictures they have not twigged on to boxscores or summaries. But Edinburgh has a newspaper with a story, which tells us that Bison goals were scored by newcomers Lucas Skrumeda and Michael St. Croix. Skrumeda's opener came after 4 minutes and Calum Robertson scored after 10 minutes to tie it up. St. Croix's winner came with just 6 seconds left. Robertson was "Man of the Match" for the Scots and Channing Bresciani countered for the Herd.

Robertson is just 16 years old, and a valuable Scottish non-import. He played Under-16 as a 13 and 14 year old, notching 44 goals in 24 games.While playing Under-20 as a 14 and 15 year old he scored 32 goals in 19 games. Also as a 15 year old, he scored 8 goals in 9 games in the SNL (2nd tier men's league behind the EIHL) and 2 more in 5 games for Britain in the Under-18 worlds.

The Hørny Ønes are holding a Scholarship Breakfast on September 28th and Michael Landsberg will be the guest speaker. He has done a lot of work speaking on mental health issues.Link:
¶ [UofL Story]

Nothing has been posted on the Bedrock U nor Bluegar websites yet. So thank goodness for the CUSN!

The Dinos have a massive group of 13 recruits from the WHL. I thought they were fortunate to do as well as they did last year. But this many newcomers should improve them. They did incur significant off-season losses due to graduation and pro deals. I can't wait for LeagueStat to update roster pages to see which players are back across the league. Here's the list:

The Bluegars' list is predominantly Junior A grads. On paper, the Dinos easily won this recruiting war. I always caution to be careful when it comes to Junior A recruits, i.e. don't assume they are below the calibre of Major Junior. But this is pretty tilted.

There is a touring Japanese team from Keio University who stopped off at the Big Lemon for a game against the U of T. This was not on their original schedule. I found a link about this on the USports site.

No game stories are available as I post, so Twitter is my friend. The Bisons enjoyed period leads of 4-0 and 5-1 en route to a convincing win. I included two posts which contain four pictures each, and there were many more if you feel like searching.

An interesting bonus is the YouTube link. If you want to hear play-by-play with a Scottish accent, give it a listen. I listened at the end of the 1st period and it sounded like Wasylak, Franko, Henry, and Zajac scored in that period. Some names don't sound the same in Scottish. I believe that the other scorers were Laurencelle, Brooks, and Shawn Bowles. I suspect they will in due time upload some highlights to that channel.

So the Bisons end the tour 3-0-1, which is decent enough.

Victor Sharonov is a 6'5" Russian who was on the roster but did not play in the 2nd semester last year.

Byron Spriggs was between the pipes.

Opponents hit the ice when Jonah Wasylak is around.

Braehead unveiled their new jerseys. They blended the ads better than most Euro jerseys.

I still have not found a good game story on either Belfast game which at least says who scored for the Bisons. I don't think UK teams ever upload boxscores or summaries, at least for pre-season games. But lots of photos and links to buy tickets, which is good.

Byron Spriggs went the distance in goal. I have not seen in photos nor mentioned in a story last season's back-up goaltender Justin Paulic, nor any new recruit in net. The Bisons (and all teams for that matter) really need to upload roster pages for 2017-18.

Any player recruited should be known by now. There has been a trickle of last-minute announcements, none from the CW. Elite Prospects compiles a list at the link. CUSN has been the best source so far and their link is here, too.
Links:
Elite Prospects: [CIS Confirmed Transfers]
CUSN: [Transactions Page]

Dinos' coach Mark Howell was amongst those interviewed for a Bedrock U story on "trash talk". Basically, they conclude that venting helps a-holes vent.
Link:
The Gauntlet: [Trash-talk an unavoidable part of sport]

First, dealing with schedules, MRU has updated theirs to include the 3 games previously noted. However, they have changed opponents on Sept 27, so that they will play the Evil Monkeys instead of Bedrock U. However, Alberta does not list the game, and Calgary still does.

The Evil Monkeys start their season in a 3-way dance against two ACAC teams, NAIT and Augustana. The three teams will play a round-robin tournament at Athabasca University, a place without hockey or other sports teams.

Bedrock U is first off the mark with their team roster page. Those gone are: Elgin Pearce, Dylan Walchuk, Coda Gordon, Parker Bowles, Danny Gayle, and Braiden Doucette. Those players are 6 of their top 12 scorers from a season ago. So while they have a strong recruiting class, they will really need it to stay on par with last year.

The Evil Monkeys and Ooks started with what seems to have been quite a game. There are no game stories out there. All I know is that "Sanford got the winner". The Athabasca College Hockey Challenge continues with NAIT v Augustana on Saturday and Augustana v Alberta on Sunday.

So the Hørny Ønes take the weekend 9-8 on total goals. There are no summaries nor boxscores. The Lethbridge Twitter had regular updates and tells us that they held period leads of 1-0 and 2-0, and their goals came from Sward, Moser, Merkley, Sanvido, and Clowes. Ty Edmonds was player of the game. Nice turn-around for Lethbridge.

Though both teams are in the ACAC, this was game 2 of the Athabasca College Hockey Challenge, which includes the Evil Monkeys. Neither team had any links on their sites or Twitter, but for a retweet of the ACHC Tweet.

Augustana and Alberta now have two points each and their game on Sunday will be for the tournament title.

Perhaps the most significant game of the night was on Vancouver Island, where the VIU Mariners played their first game. Their opponent was the South Island Knights, a Senior AA team. They tweeted out a gif of the opening faceoff, and it is linked. The game was not final as I post.

Through a series of Monkey Tweets we can see that their goals were scored by Magee, Bredo, Legault, Kieser, Nichols, Lange, and Carroll. The period scores were 2-2 and 5-2. They also had a 7-2 lead in the 3rd period. So after a big-time scare in game 1, the Primates managed to avoid slipping on a banana peel and claim the ACHC title.

The picture below was tweeted out and it appears there is no Monkey logo on their white jersey as there was last year. And no yellow highlights.

Also, VIU piled on 3 more goals and won their late Saturday game 13-1.

The Hørny Ønes will carry the CW's colours all the way to London, Ontario where they will face future insurance salesmen, the UWO Urban Cowboys. This is a Friday-Saturday double-header. Neither team made the playoffs a year ago. That is nothing unusual for the Hørny Ønes, but the Urban Cowboys are usually near the top of the OUA West.

The battle to be the toast of the coast begins in British California on Friday night when the T-irds face The Clown. Those two are being joined by Holy Trinity in a pre-season series for the Captains' Cup.

The Bison website has finally uploaded a 2017-18 roster page. I expect/hope the rest of the dominoes to fall this week. The team has one new previously unannounced recruit, Geordie Keane from the Winnipeg Blues of the MJHL. His stats and the roster page are linked. His uncle is 3-time Stanley Cup champion Mike Keane and I believe former Bison assistant coach Billy Keane is his father. Geordie was the Blues' captain last year.

My concern is the lack of blue-line recruits. The Herd has 3 goaltenders, 7 defencemen, and 18 forwards. Just like last year. Here's the breakdown:

Goaltenders

Returning
1 Justin Paulic
34 Dasan Sydora
35 Byron Spriggs

This is the 3rd season for the exact same group of three. Spriggs won the starting job from Paulic and Sydora is a #3. In the past, Coach Sirant has shown that the back-up one year will be given a shot at being the #1 the next.

Sharonov was on the roster for the 2nd semester but never dressed. The big Russian is an enigma. He somehow wound up in Florida. Maybe if we read Hillary Cinton's new book we will find out how he cost her the election. Johnston is gone after just one year, which is too bad. Christensen played 5 years and became a solid defender. On paper, the quality should be at least as good, with the benefit of added seasoning for the 5 returnees. Last year, several forwards played stretches on defence and that may be necessary again.

Despite losing their 1st and 4th leading scorers, the recruits are likely a slight upgrade on paper. Depape and Merasty were CW superstars, but St. Croix and Franko are great replacements. Paradis and Friesen seldom played so anything from Spencer and Keane would be a bonus. The question I have is: Which of these players can play the point? It is hard to scratch 6 forwards every game. There are a load of returning 2nd year Junior A players, and often those players improve greatly as they become veterans.